An aggressive, seven-alarm inferno tore through a block of attached buildings in Richmond Hill on Saturday, leaving several families homeless and businesses completely devastated.

The blaze began around 11 p.m. in a building on Liberty Avenue near 111th Street, according to the City Fire Department. It took 250 firefighters approximately four hours to bring the fire under control. Two firefighters and three civilians sustained minor injuries. More than a dozen buildings were destroyed, leaving 40 residents displaced, the Red Cross said.

According to FDNY officials, the fire is not considered suspicious. The blaze was able to spread from edifice to edifice through the help of high wind gusts overnight and flammable building materials.

“It’s a shame they lost their houses, lost the buildings,” FDNY Chief of Department James Leonard said in a New York Daily News report. “But if we don’t have loss of life, that’s the most important thing.”